Cricket

T20 WC 2024: India starts its campaign with easy win

Published

3 months ago

June 5, 2024

Ray Sportz News Desk: Despite of an injury scare for India skipper Rohit Sharma in their first match of the T20 World Cup, Team India thrash opponent Ireland at an ease ease as the Men in Blue won the game by 8 wickets on Wednesday.

The ‘Men in Blue’ will indeed have some sleepless nights going into the Pakistan game on June 9 after Rohit’s injury.

The Mumbai man had to leave the field after a well-compiled half-century (52 off 37 balls) as he missed a pull shot off a short-pitched delivery from Gujarat Titans pacer Josh Little. The ball hit him on the upper part of his right-arm left Rohit in considerable pain.

On a drop-in track that offered variable bounce and extra seam movement, Jasprit Bumrah and Mohammed Siraj didn’t even need to bring in their ‘A’ game.

Arshdeep Singh and a rejuvenated Hardik Pandya were good enough to dismantle the Irish for 96 in just 16 overs. Arshdeep (2/35 in 4 overs), Pandya (3/27 in 4 overs), Siraj (1/13 in 3 overs) and Bumrah (2/6 in 3 overs) didn’t give any breathing space to Irish batters who were made to look like novices in front of swing, seam and extra bounce produced during the 14 out of 16 overs that they bowled.

Such was their plight as none of the Irish batters save Gareth Delany (26 n.o, 14 balls) could even cross the 20-run mark.
Delany’s innings took them close to the 100-run mark.

Later, Rohit entertained the crowd with his customary pull-shots which found their appointed place in the semi-empty make-shift stands to complete the chase in 12.2 overs. Virat Kohli (1) and Suryakumar Yadav (2) missed out on some batting practice while Rishabh Pant (36 not out) was generally good in his first outing as No. 3.

The Powerplay gone horribly wrong at 26 for 2 for Ireland, and there was no coming back for them. Pandya as the second change pacer bowled a perfect nip-backer with a wobbly seam to breach through Lorcan Tucker’s defence.

Bumrah then scarred an already rattled Harry Tector with a nasty bouncer that took his gloves and almost blew away his head lobbing off the helmet. At the halfway stage, Ireland, who recently beat Pakistan in a T20I at home, were 49 for 6 and the match already became lopsided.

The biggest gain from the game was Pandya bowling his full quota of overs and the lengths that he hit during his spell which will give his skipper a chance to play an extra batter or bowler as per the demands of the conditions in coming games. His three dismissals were different deliveries — first one was swing, the second seam and the third extra bounce.

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Cricket

Chris Gayle backs Virat ahead of the final

Published

2 months ago

June 29, 2024

Ray Sportz

Ray Sportz Web Desk: India and South Africa will face the T20 World Cup final on Saturday. Former West Indies cricketer Chris Gayle expressed his views on the two opponents in the press conference before the T20 World Cup final. Both teams entered the finals unbeaten. South Africa is looking for their maiden ICC trophy. On the other hand India is aiming to end their long ICC trophy drought.

According to Gayle, both the teams are very strong and equally deserve to win. He feels the World Cup final is going to be a high-scoring match. The batting and bowling of both the teams is very strong. So Chris Gayle thinks that the fight will not be easy for both team.

Virat Kohli is going through a bad-patch in the ongoing T20 World Cup. Chris Gayle, backing India’s star batsman, said, “Virat is a very big cricketer. We have seen Virat has played brilliantly in previous World Cups. He is going through a bad time now. It can happen to anyone.” The former Caribbean feels that a big cricketer like Virat will want to prove himself in the final.

Cricket

India’s squad for T20I series against Zimbabwe:

Published

3 months ago

June 24, 2024

Ray Sportz

Ꮪhubman Gill (Captain), Yashasvi Jaiswal, Ruturaj Gaikwad, Abhishek Sharma, Rinku Singh, Sanju Samson (WK), Dhruv Jurel (WK), Nitish Reddy, Riyan Parag, Washington Sundar, Ravi Bishnoi, Avesh Khan, Khaleel Ahmed, Mukesh Kumar, Tushar Deshpande.

Cricket

Rohit takes a dig at NY pitch

Published

3 months ago

June 9, 2024

Ray Sportz

Ray Sportz News Desk: The pitch controversy of the Nassau County has taken a new turn on Saturday, when India skipper Rohit Sharma said that he has no idea what to except from it in the upcoming T20 World Cup clash against arch rivals Pakistan. He feels that the curator is “confused” about the drop-in wickets being used here.

“New York is not our home ground. We have played two matches here but we don’t have much awareness about its nature. It behaves differently on different days, so even the curator is confused,” Rohit said on the eve of the game against Pakistan.

“So, you can imagine the kind of thinking we need to put in. We don’t know on which pitch we are playing (against Pakistan), so, whoever plays better cricket will win the match,” he added.

The slowness of the outfield, Rohit said, has compounded the worries.

“The outfield is slow. Some shots get lot of bounce on the field, and some others do not roll on the field. So running between the wickets is important. We need to play as per conditions,” he explained.

However, the skipper said such external factors can be neutralised by playing good cricket and his teammates often thrive in tough situations. The Indians will also be the more confident unit as Pakistan are coming off stunning loss to tournament debutants USA in their lung-opener.

“Playing good cricket holds the key, not opposition, not pitch. Yes, it’s tough but that’s why I would like to highlight the experience we have. The blows count for nothing,” said Rohit, referring to the hits he and Rishabh Pant took in their tournament-opener against Ireland due to the uneven bounce.